


Everything is Grey

by writingwithmolls



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-05
Updated: 2018-01-05
Packaged: 2019-02-28 12:44:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13271712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingwithmolls/pseuds/writingwithmolls
Summary: Keith is unsure if he can see colors, but Shiro wants to help.





	Everything is Grey

Colors were a strange thing to Keith. It’s not that he didn’t understand the concept; if an object has color, it looks different than usual. Apparently, he saw in all grey. Black was the darker shade, most prevalent when night covered his town at 6:00 p.m.. White was the little dots that blanketed the sky, stars creating pictures and pictures creating stories.

But no one could explain colors to Keith in a way he could experience. He was left only to assume that he did not meet his soulmate just yet because what he saw never changed. An apple looked like an apple. It was the same since his first memories, sitting in front of the television eating apple slices with his babysitter, who wasn’t much older than him. Teachers attempted time and time again to appease his questions, which were plentiful when he was younger but tapered off as he grew. Once on the playground, Keith was mesmerized by a rainbow that spanned the width of the sky. Only some of the teachers had the same reaction, so they sat him down and showed him a page of circles. They asked if they looked different, if he saw that colors decorated the page. Keith just shrugged and reported that the colors looked as he remembered.

Keith did his best to not think about colors and whether or not he could see them. He learned that it was uncommon not to meet a soulmate in high school, when students still had their entire lives in front of them. One time an old woman on a bus told him that it wasn’t a race, he would see colors eventually and so would she. The woman looked high, preaching as if the riders were her congregation.

He hoped she found her soulmate.

Keith’s babysitter was the one who would keep it at the forefront of his brain. Random tests of color knowledge that frustrated Keith to know end. The older boy would just smile and tell him to be patient. Just think. But Keith couldn’t explain to him why he knew the difference between a ripe apple and a bitter one. They were just _different_. Different as in not as they were before? No, the same as always.

So, the day before he left for college, Keith was still wrestling with his relationships with colors. He couldn’t shake it, the thoughts returning with every shirt he folded. He finally decided to give up for the moment and sat outside on the steps of the deck. The warm air greated him, he would miss it when he went up North for school.

“Do you remember the day I left for college?” Keith heard the deck creak and he whipped his body around. His babysitter had a smirk on his face. Well, his _old_ babysitter. At 18 he didn’t have a need to be watched anymore. “Do you think I’m going to cry, too?”

“Shiro,” Keith shook his head, pretending not to be surprised by his presence, “I was eleven, of course I cried.”

“Mind if I join you?”

“No, it’s fine.”

Shiro sat down next to Keith, but not too close. Keith noticed that he clasped his hands together before speaking. “I can’t believe you’re going to far away for school. What am I supposed to do without you here?”

“Actually do your job?” Shiro laughed and Keith continued. “I’ll be back for breaks and holidays. You won’t miss me too much.”

“What am I supposed to do without our coffee runs?”

“How about we both get coffee at the same time and then sit on Skype?”

They both laughed at that idea, but there was something tense about their conversation. Keith felt the words being left unsaid were stabbing him in the heart, trying to make him bleed.

“Keith, what are you thinking about?” Shiro looked him in the eyes, now serious.

“College. Leaving you. Colors.”

“Well, from experience college is much better than high school. Plus, you won’t be alone. Isn’t your friend going to the same school?”

Keith scoffed. “Calling Lance a friend is a bit extreme, isn’t it?”

“Okay,” Shiro continued, “the kid who’s always with you. And didn’t you just say that we won’t miss each other too much? I’ll always be here for you to come home to.”

Keith didn’t say anything back, just lowered his eyes. He would miss Shiro so much while at school, even more than when it was Shiro who left.

“And colors, huh?” Shiro finished. “Still stuck on that? You know, most people don’t meet their soulmate until they’re older. Maybe you’ll find the one while away.”

“Do you see colors?” Keith asked, unable to stop himself. He had never asked Shiro that question. Part of him didn’t want to know, it was a fifty-fifty chance of his heart feeling like it was being stepped on.

Shiro paused. He drew in a breath before nodded. “Yes, I actually do.”

Keith looked down, trying not to sound disappointed. “What age did you start seeing them?”

“When I was ten.”

Keith knew already that Shiro wasn’t his soulmate, how could he be when Keith didn’t see colors? But Shiro’s side of the story set it in stone.

“Keith,” Shiro leaned in closer, “Are you _sure_ you don’t see colors?”

“Shut up! I get it, you have a soulmate!”

But Shiro did not stop, “I can tell! You can pick out the individual colors of rainbows and you can see different shades--”

“For as long as I can remember, the colors have looked the goddamn same!”

“Keith.” Shiro said in a small voice, placing his hand over Keith’s. “I met you when you were three. You don’t remember it, but I do. Your dad led me to your room and as soon as you looked at me the colors appeared. And I thought it was weird to meet my soulmate when he was so young, but now I can see.” Keith was silent, too many thoughts whirling at once. “You have to see colors, but I don’t think you know what a world _without_ color was.”

Keith stared at Shiro, his whole body shaking with the revelation of what the two of them were meant to be. It scared him, almost as much as thinking he could not see colors scared him. But, he looked at how confident Shiro was next to him and his worries began to melt. They would be able to get through this, to figure out how a relationship could and would work.

And together they would learn all the colors.


End file.
